As part of a cultural ‘entente cordiale’ with our neighbour across the Great Lakes, TORONTO and CHICAGO are exchanging innovative artists this summer. In a partnership with our city’s STEPS Initiative, the free-style muralist will be tackling the Roncesvalles Pedestrian Bridge <PHOTO – STEPS>

<75-foot-long mural, 222 West Merchandise Plaza, Chicago, Justus Roe>

Mr. Roe has no design plan.“I freestyle it,” he says. “I find that I have better success when I don’t work off a sketch and I let the environment guide it.”

<Andersonville, a Chicago neighbourhood>

<Kedzie Underpass, Chicago>

<‘Bright Lights, Big City’ for the Chicago Artist’s Coalition>

This is a year of celebration for both cities – Canada/150 over here, and Chicago’s Year of Public Art over there. By this fall a TORONTO artist, once chosen, will be undertaking something similar in the Windy City.

‘Passing Glances’ on Widmer Street at Adelaide, was the most personal of murals. It celebrated those who lived in the neighbourhood in the 1980’s and 90’s. Some are still with us, others have passed on. This work is almost extinct.

Another BILL WRIGLEY mural can be found on the south side of the Senator Restaurant, Victoria Street, just south of Yonge/Dundas Square> It’s in good shape.

BILL WRIGLEY has specialized in professional mural painting for over 25 years and is recognized in Canada as a leading artist in the field. He has earned commissions from as far away as Japan and Mexico, across Canada and in the United States.

Above YORK STREET, from TORONTO’s Southcore Financial Centre to Union Station, a corrugated glass bridge has become a public art landmark. Created by the acclaimed New York light artist, JAMES CARPENTER, “Lake Light Threshold” consists of illuminated prismatic sheets of glass which change colour. Pedestrians, crossing from office buildings to the railway station, become animated components, clearly visible to passing automobile and airplane traffic.